


The Good Thing about Bad Things

by EiraAderyn



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: 1.16 The Nether Update (Minecraft), Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Kiely (Minecraft), Video & Computer Games, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29964744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EiraAderyn/pseuds/EiraAderyn
Summary: It happened suddenly. No one knows how or why it happened, but everyone, no matter their age, big or small, they were there. People scrambled when millions of people from all over the world spawned, all of them  clustered in a crowd only one block apart from each other. Children and mothers were separated. Family members were billions of blocks away from each other. And in it all, only a few million people even knew what Minecraft was.***Giving her no chance to rest, he slashed his sword. Kiely frantically blocked with her shield. The Player stabbed out with his sword again, this time at an angle. Kiely couldn’t put up her shield in time as the sword grazed her arm. She gasped in pain and watched as her health dropped. Seven hearts left.Kiely took a chance.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The good thing about bad things is that they come to an end.
> 
> The bad thing about good things is that they to, come to an end.

Kiely had been asleep when it happened. In hindsight, she was lucky. The people who were awake had gone from doing whatever they were doing, to being lurched violently into this new world. That same lurching, is what woke Kiely up. 

The first thing she did was fall into another person. The second thing she did was shriek in surprise. As anyone would do when they woke up violently and fell onto the nearest thing. Which was a person. Accculally, now when she looks around, she looks like she’s in a crowd of people. A very large crowd. The person she fell onto cursed at her and started trying to fight his way through the mass of people. In fact, many people were trying to do the same thing. Having been shocked into a cold state of panic by her jolt and by the unnamed person yelling at her, she allowed herself to be pushed by the mass of shouting and screaming people. People that had no idea where they were, just like her. Had she sleep walked here? She’s never sleep walked before and it would be cool but terrifying if she did and now she was here on her own. 

Kiely realized that she was here on her own, and she couldn’t see any landmarks, though that might be blamed on the pushing and trampling crowd around her. The crowd that was panicking. People were shouting and Kiely was being pushed and pulled along by the waves of bodies. She couldn’t hear anything over the roar from the people. It sounded like a rock concert but instead of there being cheering, there were only panicked cries. Kiely shouted in pain as stray elbows and arms flew, catching her in the eye and multiple places in her back and ribs. The sharp pains caused her to gasp, followed by more pushing from the people behind her. She was going to get trampled. The startling thought caused a new wave of panic to rush through her. She noticed the crowd pushing in a certain direction, and hoping that there was a way out that way, she started to push too. After a few minutes, the crowd started to thin. Granted, it wasn’t by much, but the further Kiely went in that direction, where everyone else was going, the less she got stabbed by the many appendages of others. The less people were panicking at the tight space. The more she started to notice how strange her surroundings were. 

She wasn’t in the city, that was for sure. The lack of asphalt roads or any houses was an indication of that. Walking quickly with the others from the crowd, she was starting to see trees in the distance. As more and more distance was made by Kiely, she started to have more than a few inches between herself and the person nearest to her. Kiely felt like she could finally breathe. At least a little bit. As she walked, she started to notice how strange the trees looked, and how strange everything looked in general. Everything was blocky. If she didn’t know better she would say it sort of looked like…no, wait a minute. Kiely squinted at the area below her feet, the ground moving by fast as she kept walking. She swears she can see an outline. Is that just her imagination? Or is this place made out of perfectly shaped...blocks? A few more minutes of walking and scrutinizing the ground, she made it to the treeline. There was no way she was going crazy, the trees and leaves were also shaped like cubes. Was this a joke? Did somebody design this place to look like Minecraft, or was it just her? Kiely swallowed down a hysterical giggle as the people next to her also started noticing how weird the landscape was. 

“Is this Minecraft? Or am I just hallucinating.” A British sounding lady in front of her asked.

“Exactly my thoughts,” Another responded. There was a brief pause.

“What’s Minecraft?” Everyone fell silent. The person never got an answer, and they didn’t ask again. Kiely stayed quiet throughout the conversation, as she was deep in thought. Was this Minecraft? It sounded like a joke. Maybe they were in some sort of replica by some crazy person who thought it was funny to mess around with this many people, but as they walked, she started to doubt. Nobody would put this many details into something this huge. The flowers had pixel-like textures, even shaped like regular flowers, and Kiely was also starting to see animals around. For example cows and chickens. They were no doubt more detailed than regular minecraft, but the colors were the same. 

Kiely walked through that forest for hours. It was unsettling. How the forest was so quiet. There were no birds chirping, no leaves rustling. The only sound being her footsteps crunching in the grass, and the distant sounds of other people. The only plants Kiely could see in the forest were flowers and trees. There were no bushes, no small plants that could impede her path. No nats or bugs flying around her face, annoying her. I was almost like the forest was dead. Or maybe like there was nothing here in the first place. It was starting to get colder, and seeing as she was only in the t-shirt and sweatpants she went to sleep in, goosebumps spread along her arms as she shivered. Besides, Kiely has always been more sensitive to the cold, and she was also known to wear heavy coats even in California ninety degree weather.

As she kept walking, She saw and heard less and less of people. The sky was darkening and it was getting harder to see through the fog that started to roll in. Just as she was about to stop and try to quickly make a shelter with what she could find, she heard a faint scream in the distance. Kiely stiffened, a shiver of uneasiness rolling down her spine. She looked around in fear, though she could only make out so much with the leaves above her blocking out most of the moonlight. She heard a rattle, like a clicking knock like sound, behind her. It stood out so starkly against the quiet of earlier. She only got that far into her thought before pain shot through her arm like a gunshot. It was so much worse than the bruises she got from being trampled. It was so much worse than just a scraped knee. Something red flashed in her vision, too fast for her to make out, but then she heard another rattle from the underbrush. If this was Minecraft, which was becoming an all too real possibility, then she was in big trouble. 

Why didn’t she connect the dots sooner? Why didn’t she make somewhere to stay the night earlier? Why didn’t she just think- The sound of a hiss from her right cut her off. She swerved to the left, barely managing to dodge a swipe of black talons as an inhumanly large spider lunged at her. She sprinted forward, hearing nothing but the blood pounding in her ears. If this was Minecraft then-! She stopped suddenly, hoping this wouldn’t cost her her life. Kiely desperately swung a fist at the ground. Whimpering when the block broke underneath her and her arm jolted. Thankful that it was her left arm that was injured, she broke two more blocks beneath her, bracing herself this time. She looked up to the entrance of the three block hole she made, hoping that no mob stumbled across her. She looked down at the small dirt cube in her hand. How did that even work? Not the time. She slapped the hand holding the dirt, against the block above her. The hole she was in became pitch black, and just then, the adrenaline rushing through her veins seemed to run out. Kiely collapsed to the floor, there not being enough room for her legs to spread out, so she just tucked them close to her chest. She reveled in the dark confined space, her heart rate calming. She could hear the hisses, clicks and groans of the monsters above her and prayed that they were normal minecraft mobs that didn’t know how to dig. 

***

After a frankly embarrassing amount of crying, though due to the circumstances, Kiely thought she was entitled to it. She started to calm down. She was by no means her usal, ‘I have a bitch face don’t mess with me’ level of calm, she was calm enough to start thinking. So, Kiely was in Minecraft. Most people probably would have been still trying to wrap their heads around that, but Kiely saw herself as a fast adapter. She couldn’t do a lot of things, now. She didn’t have food, so she couldn’t heal (Is that even still how it worked?). She didn’t have any wood to make anything. (Kiely curses the fact that she was so dense before her forceful wake up call.) And she didn’t know how to access her inventory. Does she even have an inventory? Ok. First things first. Inventory, Hotbar, Health and Hunger. Kiely squinted in the dark, trying to make out a hotbar or her health bar. After what she imagenes might have been a few seconds of focusing, a white hotbar, along with her hearts and hunger appear in her vision. She’s grateful for the light, even if it didn’t cast any glow on her surroundings. She focuses on her stats. Six hearts. She doesn’t want to find out what happens if she dies. Only three in and a half hunger bars. She was really cutting it close. 

Kiely is glad that she has walked up until now. She doesn’t want to think about what would have happened if she had run out of sprint during her epic battle of running away from mobs. The pain in her arm hadn’t lessened, but it hadn’t decreased either. She shivered and absentmindedly rubbed her arms, she could feel the feathery end of an arrow. Kiely winced as her fingers brushed the wound. She decided not to touch it until she got some food, then she could decide what to do about it. She had a feeling that it wasn’t going to despawn like in the game. She swiped down with her uninjured hand, intending to get rid of the hotbar taking up the lower half of her vision. Kiely gasped in surprise when another white screen popped up. It wasn’t her inventory, that much was for sure. At the top of the screen, it showed her full name, Kiely Lin Anderson, and her age, 15. Below that was something that surprised Kiely. Lives-1. She has one life. One life that she could have lost in a blink of an eye if it wasn’t for her quick thinking. She swallowed nervously and went back to scrolling through the screen. Deaths-0. How did that work? Did not everyone have one life? Could she get more lives? Kiely hoped so, because she’s never made it through a minecraft playthrough without dying at least once. She thought about the scream that she heard earlier. Did they make it out alive? Or were they dead. 

People would call Kiely cruel or selfish, but Kiely honestly didn’t care about people that didn’t relate to her. If she heard that somebody died, but didn’t know them, then she wouldn’t feel anything for them. It's a different story about her fam- Her family! Were they alright? Were they even here? Kiely felt jittery knowing that they could die to the mobs before she got to them. She looked back to the small white screen in her vision. Another number caught her attention, Days lived-1. She suddenly didn’t want to look at this screen anymore. Besides, that was the last thing there anyway. She stopped focusing on the screen, watching it fade from existence. Kiely sighed, she had a long night before day came. 

Kiely has just earned the achievement ‘Taking Inventory’

***  
Over the hours that passed, Kiely learned how to swipe up for cords, and learned how to ignore the throbbing pain from her arm and the bruises she got from other people she woke up near. Spawn was probably the correct term for that place. She didn’t know if it was night or day, but she didn’t really want to check in fear that her hole would be discovered and a mob would drop in with her. She also didn’t want to add more space to her small hole because she didn’t know how mob spawning worked and she really didn’t want a hostile mob spawning right next to her. Kiely really needed to check if it was daytime outside. She didn’t want to waste any part of the day. Kiely looked up at the block above her, and she swung out with her right fist. Exactly three punches, and the dirt above her broke. Sunlight leaked through the hole, and she sighed in relief when she realized it was day. Now how did she get out?

***

After a bit of time, she learned how to tower. She just had to jump high enough to place the block below her. It was a weird experience, but oddly enough it wasn’t as tiring as she thought it would be. As soon as Kiely got out of her hole, she went over to the nearest tree and started to punch it. It was weird that it didn’t hurt her fists as much as she thought it should, but she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. An achievement popped up ‘Getting Wood’ as it did when she learned how to open her inventory. Kiely hoped that other people couldn’t see her achievements. She assumed not, as she hadn’t seen any achievements other than her own and there didn’t seem to be a chat. 

As soon as she punched out the four blocks of oak logs she got from the tree, she opened her inventory and made a crafting bench along with some sticks. She placed the crafting bench down, and made some basic wooden tools. A pickaxe, a sword, and a shovel. She didn’t need a wood axe yet. Next, Kiely dug another hole, this time not straight down, and started to get some cobblestone. She got eight pieces then went back to the crafting table, crafting an axe, shovel, and a pickaxe. If Kiely remembered correctly, then in this version of minecraft, axes dealt more crit damage. She hesitated, then made a sword just in case she was wrong. Better to be safe than sorry. 

Kiely has earned the advancement ‘Stone Age’  
Kiely has earned the advancement ‘Getting an Upgrade’

Kiely started to chop down trees. If she was going to get iron, then she needed tons of smelting materials. She also needed torches so she could go mine. While chopping wood, she noticed she was stronger than she used to be, or the trees were just weaker. She ate the apples that dropped off the branches and thankfully got up to full hunger. Kiely eyed the arrow embedded in her arm, she had been ignoring it, but the skin was starting to heal around where the arrowhead disappeared into her flesh. She was thankful that healing followed the rules of minecraft, but not so thankful about the arrow stuck in her arm. She scanned her surroundings, then dropped into a sitting position when she didn’t spot anything alive. (or undead, you never know) She gripped the arrow with her free hand. She knew it wasn’t smart to yank it out, but she didn’t have many options. Besides, with the accelerated healing, it hopefully wouldn’t be too bad. (She hoped bleed damage wasn’t a thing) Not hesitating, Kiely pulled hard but carefully on the arrow, grinding her teeth against the yelp that tried to escape. When she looked, she saw that she took half a heart of damage from her eight hearts. She sat there for a few minutes, waiting for the pain to lessen and for her hearts to tik back up to being full. She ate two more apples and breathed a sigh of relief when her stats showed full hunger and full health. 

A quiet hiss from behind her startled her into lunging forward from her sitting position. A loud explosion echoed through the forest as a creeper exploded at her back. Kiely loses four hearts and a ringing is left in her ear as she collects herself. There goes resting in open spaces. She’s thankful for her quick reflexes, or else she would have been a scattered pile of Kiely bits on the floor right now. She shivered at the thought. Kiely quickly ate an apple, hoping to regen a bit. It didn’t even hurt as much as the arrow, it just had her take a lot of damage. She collected the dirt from the creeper hole, then towered out of it. That dick of a creeper exploded her crafting table, so she’d have to make another one. Ah, the joys of life. 

***

After making another crafting table, Kiely went to go find a cave. She was relatively lucky in this. She found coal at the entrance of the cave and immediately crafted torches, placing them only on the right side of the cave to mark her path. As she went deeper, Kiely mined every piece of ore she found. She fought a skeleton, the skeleton puffed into smoke. With seven hearts, Kiely gained two bones. She found it kind of unfair that she didn’t get the multiple other bones that she knew the skeleton had, or the bow it was carrying, but she guessed that was just how Minecraft worked.

Kiely has earned the advancement ‘Monster Hunter’

Kiely crafted a furnace and smelted her half stack of iron ore. 

Kiely has made the advancement ‘Acquire Hardware’ 

When that was done, she made full iron armor, along with an iron axe and an iron pickaxe. oddly, when she was carrying the iron armor in her hands it felt heavy, but when she equipped it, she didn’t feel the weight at all. She ignored the advancement ‘Suit Up’ that appeared in the corner of her vision. Now that she thinks about it. Kiely felt like she was carrying nothing at all, when she knew her inventory was full of stacks of cobblestone. Maybe it’s magic. Weird.

She went back to mining. 

***  
“Oh, I’m mining~ Oh I’m mining tonight~”  
***

After what felt like roughly twenty minutes of being in that cave and just following the tunnels, she noticed a piece of something that stood out in the grey of the caves that she was in. Kiley squinted at a piece of stone, noticing that there was a tiny bit of moss growing on it. She jumped up, grinning. If there was moss here then there might be a spawner, as was indicated by mossy cobblestone. She quickly went to dig in that area, looking for the spawner and the loot that came with it.

Kiely found herself disappointed when in the end, there was no spawner. It seemed that it was just an ordinary piece of stone with a bit of moss growing on it. Kiely sighed and continued to mine.

***  
A few hours later, and Kiely has two full stacks of iron. She had gone through three iron pickaxes. She also had some other ores, like gold, though they were much rarer than iron. It seemed like the rarity of iron was also increased a bit, or she was just unlucky. She hadn’t found diamonds yet, though she did successfully kill a creeper. She had opened her cords and she was at the right Y cords for diamonds and she was just strip mining right now. She had to take little breaks in between to rest, but she found herself oddly fit. Kiely also noticed that she wasn’t thirsty. Like, at all. It had been almost two days since Kiely appeared in Minecraft, but she has not felt dehydrated once. She guessed that’s a plus. In regular Minecraft, players didn’t have to drink, so that kinda makes sense. She’s also not yet had to go to the bathroom, which… she doesn’t know how to feel about that. 

Anyway, Kiely is actually running out of apples, so she needs to go up soon. She mines for a couple more minutes before starting to mine upwards. 

Suddenly, the fiery glow of lava exploded out into the tunnel, the hole that Kiely had made in the stone, spewing the slowly moving death trap. The heat caused goosebumps to spread everywhere along her body. Kiely once again thanked her quick reflexes as she panic placed the dirt in her hot bar in the hole she made. She kind of missed the warmth, and she was just starting to get used to the cold too. She didn’t even think she could scroll through her hot bar without bringing it up! Yet she did and it saved her life. Kiely breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall for a moment as she breathed through the aftershocks of an adrenaline rush. That was super unlucky. She was so close to just...dying. It really puts things into perspective. Kiely thinks she’ll have her fair share of near death experiences by the time this is all over, when things are back to normal (will it ever be over though? Until she inevitably dies?) Kiely didn’t want to lie to herself. She didn’t lie to herself often. She knew that one of the many endings to the story involved her never seeing her home again. She didn’t even really care about that, though she would miss it. She was just worried about her family. 

She hoped they hadn’t died. For now, the best she could do for them was live, and maybe thrive.

***  
Kiely has made the advancement ‘Diamonds!’  
Kiely has made the advancement ‘Hot Stuff’


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiely wondered if there was another person here. If there was, maybe they could team up or at least trade some items. Kiely hasn’t had a proper conversation in… She swiped down, looking at her Days Lived counter, three days. Wow, that’s a lot less than she was expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See notes at the end for descriptions for the advancements

After navigating around the underground lava pool, in which there were many close calls, Kiely finally got out of the underground. Not before she stumbled across a four vein of diamonds though. Kiely was indecisive on whether to make a diamond axe or a pair of boots. It was quickly decided though by running into a zombie in the cave next to the lava, where she found the diamonds. She needed to learn how to do crit damage with the axe. She knows that axe crits are very good against shields. 

Speaking of shields, Kiely didn’t know the recipe for a shield by heart, so it took a few tries to get it right. There was no guide for this, only the three by three crafting table slots. She could only imagine how people who didn’t even know what the game was, would be faring. Kiely grimaced and equipped the shield. It too, like her magic armor, did not weigh much. Though when she held it out in front of her like she was going to block, the shield’s perceived weight increased exponentially. odd. 

Anyway, Kiely didn’t use shields because in game they tended to obscure vision, though she wasn’t as bothered by it now as she usually would be just playing regular Minecraft. She would definitely have to get used to shields because of the protection they offered. With her diamond axe and shield, she could probably take down mobs way easier than before, though learning how to use them would take a bit. Kiely was still unused to in-game combat. She seemed stronger than in real life, but the mobs were also stronger. 

***

Kiely needed food, that much was apparent. She had just found dirt and started to dig up, when she hit water. Water flooded the cave, and thankfully, by Minecraft mechanics, it only flooded a bit of the cave. Kiely looked up to the water. She hated getting wet, especially in this situation where she had no clothes to dry her. Kiely wonders if she could make more clothes out of wool, because they weren’t a crafting item. 

The water leaked from the hole in her mine, she winced and took the leap. The loud splash of water muffled by the water as she started to swim up. After a few seconds, and only having two bubbles left, Kiely breached the water. She took in gasps of air, paddling in the water to stay afloat. Her swimming was a bit rusty, as it had been a few years since she was in a swimming class. 

Kiely saw that it was night, and cursed her luck. Hopefully if she swam fast enough, no drowned would get her. Hopefully none of the drowned had a trident. Kiely swam like her life depended on it. She hadn’t memorized her cords from earlier, which she realizes is a stupid thing, so she just picked a direction and swam for it. 

Kiely could just make out the fish swimming under her as she went. She doggy paddles as fast as she could, and only had two close calls with a drowned before she made it to land. Now, it wasn’t very big land, more like a small island, but it would do for now. Kiely dragged herself onto the beach, curling up in the cold sand. She stood shivering after a moment. It was night, so she had to make shelter. As almost an afterthought, she pick up two blocks of sand. Kiely went over to the nearest grass, and started to dig down. Doing what she did the night before. 

Her stomach grumbled, indicating that she was out of sprint, but she would have to wait for morning. She wishes she had stopped for some fish in the ocean, but she had been too worried about the possibility of drowned. She had placed a torch in her one by one space, and was starting to dig it bigger. Kiely placed down her crafting table and a furnace. She started to smelt her sand, creating two pieces of glass. She replaced the dirt above her with glass. Now she would know when it turned into a day! Kiely grinned to herself. A whispered, “Yes!” escaping her.

Next, Kiely put her iron into the furnace. She yawned, making three more furnaces and splitting the coal between them. She didn’t want to use her single lava bucket yet, besides, she had plenty of coal with her. Kiely yawned again. She didn’t have a bed, but maybe she could take a little nap on the floor. The dirt didn’t look all that comfortable, but she’s slept in worse. She used to sleep under her bed when she was little after all, and the wooden floor of her room was very uncomfortable. She shivered in her wet clothes. Kiely hoped she didn’t get sick. She sat down by the furnace, the heat radiating off of it causing the girl to sigh in relief. She took off her bulky armor and cuddled up to the warmth, falling into, if not a deep sleep, then a very comfy one. 

***  
The next morning, Kiely had an idea. If it worked, then she would never be cold again. She had made shears, and she was going to get wool today. If her theory was correct, then she would get much more wool in the future. There weren't many sheep on her little island, but she trapped them and waited. After she had gotten as much wool as she could ever want, (only like half a stack) Kiely went back to her crafting table. She made a bed first, not wanting a repeat of the same experience the night before. Then Kiely made carpet. Now, the carpet was only about the surface area of a block, but was as thick as a wooly carpet. It was soft too. The carpet had shrunk to fit in her hand but she wanted it normal sized for this- 

The carpet grew to its regular size in her hand, it also weighed closer to how she thought it realistically weighed. Huh, she thought, that’s convenient. Kiely shrunk it back to its original size and got out some sticks. She didn’t know if this would work, but if it did, then it would open up a whole world of possibilities (also it would be cool). She sharpeded the stick with her axe, until the point was fine and it was ¼ its original size. She carefully carved a slit at the end of the stick to create a hole (this took a few tries due to the bulkiness of her axe and how small her makeshift needle was.) The needle didn’t shrink when she put it in her inventory, (thank god) but it did fill up its own inventory slot and didn’t bunch up with the other sticks. She chuckled when she hovered her finger over the item. 

Strange stick. Yes, a very strange stick indeed. 

She made some string with her wool, threading her needle and getting out the carpet. She made more carpet, sewing them together into a makeshift sweater. She wasn’t that good at sewing, but using her shears and her needle, she managed to get something workable. It wasn’t pretty, but god, was it comfortable. 

Kiely spent the rest of the day sewing. She babbled and sang made up songs in the time that she sewed. She stayed still in her dirt hole. Only going out to kill some animals for meat and get more wood. She also made a makeshift fishing spear. It took a while, due to not being able to use a crafting table, but she did also get some fish. Kiely hopes that she doesn’t deplete the island of resources too fast. 

Kiely has earned the advancement ‘Tactical Fishing’

She got back to her little hole soon enough though. She really wanted to finish this jacket. (and if she embedded leather armor into her clothing, then only she knew. The game couldn’t do anything about it) 

Kiely was really happy with her new clothes. It also cemented the idea that she could craft things without use of a crafting table. She even made leather boots that she lined with fur to keep her feet warm. She learned that if she didn’t equip armor, then she could equip other armor over it. The downside was that if she didn’t equip the armor, then she could feel the weight of it, so this trick only worked with leather armor. Iron was too heavy to wear without the magic that made it weightless. On the plus side, she got extra protection. She also made leather gloves the reached all the way up to her shoulders, as the armor only covered her shoulders and left her arms bare. It didn’t even look like she was wearing leather armor, besides the gloves and the boots, because they were covered by her wool clothes. 

***  
Kiely has earned the advancement ‘New Fashion Statement’  
***  
Darkness was falling. Kiely wondered what other things were different about this version of minecraft. 

She had made a spear, and she had also sewn herself new clothes. Both of which were not actions known to be in the actual game of minecraft. This makes her think that she can do other things. Things like what she is doing right now.

Kiely waits in her hole for a chance. She hadn’t slept in a bed the night before, so she doesn’t know if it counts or not. If it does count, then she might have a bad time in the upcoming nights. Just as that thought hit her mind, the ethereal screech of a phantom pierced the air. 

A scaly creature out of her nightmares swooped down into the hole. Kiely swiped out with a gloved hand and grabbed the phantom by the neck. It screeched again at her. It’s sharp claws digging into her gloves, but her steady hands didn’t yield. Kiely observed the mob. It had sharp looking rows of teeth and was trying to squirm out of her grasp. It looked sort of like a lizard with it’s skin, but also not at all like a lizard. It looked kind of cute, though that was probably just her. The way she held it down sort of reminded her of how she would catch lizards for fun when she was little. She did get bit many times, but it was all part of the fun.

Kiely looked down at the hissing creature. If she just killed it, then she wouldn’t get many drops. There was a chance she would get nothing at all. She frowned. That didn’t seem fair. There were many things that she could use off of a phantom. It’s claws or teeth for example. They seemed sharp. Kiely wondered if she could skin it without it dying and puffing into smoke.

***  
Kiely has earned the advancement ‘Cruel Efficiency’  
***

Kiely was having fun. Most people would probably be repealed by what she was doing, but she found it interesting. Apparently, the membrane of a phantom was a part of the wing. After debating with herself, she had also harvested the phantom’s needle sharp teeth. They looked like they would make good arrowheads. 

Kiely had a long night. After a few hours of harvesting mobs that fell into her hole, she had plenty of mob drops. Kiely noticed that her inventory was starting to get full, so she stopped and slept for the night. She closed her hole with dirt and collapsed into her plain white bed. It felt like she hadn’t had a good night's rest in ages. She fell asleep only seconds after her head hit the pillow.

-Respawn Point Set-  
***

Kiely woke to soft daylight filtering through her glass skylight. She ate a quick breakfast of cooked chicken. She’s kind of grossed out by blood, but the chickens she killed yesterday only puffed into smoke with a raw chicken and a few feathers. The other animals were the same. She didn’t feel too bad about it. Their deaths weren’t worthless. Afterall, she got to live on another day by using their life as energy. 

Today, she is thinking about creating a small farm to get some wheat. She hopes that wheat has a shorter grow time than in real life, or she might be waiting months. She wants to breed her sheep some so she can create a sheep farm. Also, as much as she loves apples and meat, she kind of wants a sandwich. To do that though, she needs bread. 

The day was kind of boring. She sang a few songs. She made some bread and that sandwich. But other than that…

“Wha…” Kiely… didn’t place that torch. She didn’t. She would have remembered if she had. She hadn’t even placed any torches outside of her hidey-hole. This island was supposed to be completely torch free. Kiely wondered if there was another person here. If there was, maybe they could team up or at least trade some items. Kiely hasn’t had a proper conversation in… She swiped down, looking at her Days Lived counter, three days. Wow, that’s a lot less than she was expecting.

ANyway! Kiely is a lonely child and any attempts the other person would make to avoid her will result in DEATH. Just kidding. She was kidding. Kiely saw another torch, she followed a trail of torches until she got to a hill, where the torches seemed to have stopped. Maybe the person dug into the wall like she did? She was going to try punching the wall when an arrow pierced her leg. She yelped and jumped back. Thankfully the arrow didn’t hit skin because of her armor, but just as Kiely looked around for the skeleton that shot her, another arrow bounced off of her shield. 

Kiely has earned the advancement ‘Not Today, Thank You’

What! It was daytime. Skeletons weren’t even supposed to spawn in daytime. 

Just as Kiely was about to head back and give up looking for the skeleton, a shadow passed over her. In desperation, she lunged forward. That probably ended up saving her life because when she looked over, a man over a head taller than her pulled his diamond sword out of the grass. He grinned wickedly at her. He was in full armor, besides a diamond chestplate that shined in the setting sun. Giving her no chance to rest, he slashed his sword. Kiely frantically blocked with her shield. If she hadn’t then she would be dead. The player stabbed out with his sword again, this time at an angle. Kiely couldn’t put up her shield in time as the sword grazed her arm, doing three whole hearts of damage. 

Kiely whipped out her diamond axe, taking the guy by surprise. She managed to get a hit in, though it didn’t seem to do much damage. Going on the defensive, the two circled each other. The player didn’t seem to have a shield, so he was relying on the protection his armor gave him. Kiely didn’t want to eat food yet, as that would leave her open to attack. Maybe…

“Why are you doing this! Why are you attacking me!” 

The guy chuckled menacingly,”I just don’t want to die.” That literally made no sense to Kiely. 

The player lunged forward and took a swipe at the girl, but Kiely was ready with her shield. She blocked the attack and they went back to circling. 

Kiely tried again,”You think you're so great! You're just a criminal. Besides your just stupid going after someone in full iron armor.” 

That got a reaction. The guy lunged angrily, his sword swiping uncoordinated at her. She tried to dodge back, but she realized she had cornered herself against the hill. The sword swiped across the unprotected seam where her chestplate met her leggings. After that attack, she was only on three hearts. But this was Kiely’s chance, that attack had left the other unprotected too. She jumped up as high as she could and brought her axe down on the man’s helmet. The iron helmet broke with a loud ‘CRACK’. The Player stumbled back, disoriented from the blow. Kiely panic swung again, the blow grazing his arms and chestplate. Kiely watched in horror as the man’s face morphed into fear. His form puffed into smoke, the only thing left of him was his gear and inventory. 

Kiely collapsed. She shakily breathed in and out for a few minutes, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she had just killed someone. She had killed them. But they tried to kill her first. But Kiely… She killed someone. She laughed a bit hysterically, ending in a sob. She forced herself to stand. The items in front of her needed to be sorted through. She sniffled and steeled herself. She was fine, after all. Kiely ate some cooked beef, focusing first on getting her health up. She sorted through the pile quickly, as night was creeping closer. 

The iron armor was low durability, but the chestplate was almost full. No wonder the helmet broke that easily. She discarded all the blocks except the logs. This guy also had a bow and a stack of arrows, she wonders if the skeleton from earlier was even real, or if it was this guy trying to shoot her. In the loot, she also found thirty steaks, which was good. He didn’t seem to have any other good tools besides the sword. Kiely contemplated on taking it, then put it in her inventory for later. She’d burn it if she didn’t want it. She didn’t want anyone else to find it. Pulling out her lava bucket, Kiely burned the rest of the items. Kiely guesses she was lucky that this guy had a sword instead of an axe, or she would have been in trouble.

It was dark out by the time Kiely got to her hidey-hole. She rushed inside and blocked off the entrance as a Zombie took a swipe at her. It missed, but it was close. Kiely slouched next to the crafting table, burying her face in her hands. She couldn’t get what that guy said out of her head. How does it even make sense? How could he have been doing this to live when he was trying to kill another person? It didn’t make sense. It didn’t… 

Kiely looked up from her hands, a feeling of dread weighing on her. She hoped she was wrong. She hoped she was.

She shakily swiped down. Her eyes moved along the screen until she found what she was looking for. Her stomach dropped.

Lives-2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘Cruel efficiency’ -fully loot a mob
> 
> I totally stole that from another work that I am going to go find and Link. I just love the idea of it and that story is actually what gave me the idea for this story.
> 
> ‘New Fashion Statement’ -make new clothes the old fashioned way
> 
> ‘Tactical Fishing’ -catch a fish without using a fishing rod
> 
> Same advancement in the game, but with a twist that I stole from the same work that used ‘cruel Efficiency‘
> 
> I have an idea for the phantom membranes but it is also a stolen idea and I don’t want to do too much of that. So, may or may not use it. Read the other story to find out what I’m talking about.
> 
> ———  
> I’m back like 2 hours later to give the deets on that other fic. It’s called check chat, by TrashcanWithSprinkles. Please go give a kudos to this fic for inspiring this whole story and check it out. It’s actually really good. I just love the Dream SMP.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunlight greeted her as she mined through the grass. She squinted at the sun and started to tower up. Kiely looked in the direction of 0,0, only to see a giant, looming structure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New chapter! Might be a few more days til the next chapter is out, but until then, stay tuned!

Kiely feels sick. But also at the same time, strangely relieved. She gets a second chance if she dies now. That also meant that guy could have had more lives. Kiely went back to being sick.

***

Kiely earned the advancement ‘Cover Me With Diamonds’  
***

Kiely had to leave. It wasn’t that hard, but she had grown attached to her little hidey-hole. She hasn’t spent that long here, but she didn’t want to leave. She absentmindedly ran a finger over the chip in her diamond chestplate. But she needed to leave. If she didn’t, then there was a possibility that the player would come back. Kiely didn’t want to take that risk.

She packed what little things she had, along with her bed, and set out. Looking back at the one piece of glass embedded in the floor, she sighed. Kiely broke the glass and replaced it with dirt. 

Kiely set off. She didn’t know where to go. Her only direction was away. Then a thought hit her. 0,0. She could head there. There might be other players heading in that direction. She knew not all players were like the one she ran into, but she didn’t want to take any risks. Kiely had time. She didn’t have to get to her destination quickly, so she did the smart thing and started to mine. 

Over the next few days she strip mined at y level 11. Kiely found enough diamonds to make full diamond armor, though she did almost die by lava twice.

On day five of staying alive, Kiely was a thousand blocks away from 0,0. She had a full set of diamond armor and diamond tools, along with eight extra diamonds. She still kept her iron armor with her, just in case. She had a feeling she might need it at some point. She also kept an iron axe on her. 

Kiely had a choice to make. Did she go up to the surface to travel on foot? Or did she keep mining? It would be way faster to go on foot, but there weren’t many important resources up there. She also had the chance of running into other players. If any were hostile then she could probably deal with them. But on the other hand, she didn’t want to kill anyone, even if they could respawn. 

It was a hard choice, but in the end Kiely decided to go up. It might be more dangerous, but a thousand blocks wasn’t that far. She could probably walk that in a day. Besides, it was better to scout the surrounding area rather than go in blind. Kiely started to go up. She adjusted her grip on her iron pickaxe and started mining. Just before she breached the surface, she smelted all of her ore. She had to make iron blocks to free up some space in her inventory, but other than that everything went good. 

Sunlight greeted her as she mined through the grass. She squinted at the sun and started to tower up. When she looked around at the area she was in, she saw giant bees and flowers everywhere. Flower forest. The giant bees sort of scared her, though they were definitely cuter than regular bees. She didn’t know if they acted like regular or Minecraft bees, but she didn’t want to risk it. Their buzzing was unsettling, as Kiely had grown used to the lack of background noise in this game. She was also just really terrified of bees.

Kiely looked in the direction of 0,0, only to see a giant, looming structure made mostly out of wood, dirt and cobblestone. She was about 600 blocks from 0,0, so she wasn’t sure why the people built this structure so far away, but she couldn’t complain. Her foresight was correct in that she needed the iron armor. Something was telling her that these people wouldn’t react well to someone strolling up in full diamond armor. Kiely equipped her iron armor, leaving her diamond in her inventory. She walked up to the structure. She didn’t want to set them on guard, but if they were hostile, then she wanted to be ready to run. 

Kiely warily looked up at the structure looming over her. She had a shield and an iron axe, but she didn’t know if she could go up against more than one person. She’s thankful that she set her spawn point at her strip mine, but she hoped it didn’t come to that. 

***

Kiely has to be honest. She was kind of uneasy when she walked up to the structure. There was a door at the base of the structure. The door was closed, but as she got closer, she could see someone inside from the holes in the oak door.

“Hello, I’m Fran. I’m assuming you want to come inside?” The lady smiled, she then motioned for Kiely to follow her. “When we get inside, you’ll have to take off your armor.” Fran handed her some paper. “Also, this is mandatory, but we need your name and information please.” Kiely didn’t want to take her armor off, but she knew that she had to follow the rules of these people so that she could be let inside. Who knows, maybe she could find her family.

Kiely followed as the lady led her to a desk, putting out a book and quill in front of her. “When you are done with the questions, sign the book. Please try to answer truthfully. I need to go, but I’ll send someone to come get you in a bit.” 

Kiely nodded, and Fran walked out of the room. Kiely took a look at the book and quill in front of her. Name, she could do that. Age, she also could do that. Kiely filled out the form the best she could, putting in her information, or at least what she remembered. She filled out her relatives' information best she could too. A few of the questions stumped her though. The one asking for how many lives she had made her digit nervously. Did she lie? Or did she tell the truth. Kiely was stumped. She didn’t know how to react to answering that question. In the end, she just decided to put down one. She would feel guilty, but the idea of someone finding out she took another person’s life terrified her. 

When Kiely was done with all of the questions, or at least the ones she could fill out, she put her name on the first page of the book and closed it. It didn’t look signed though. There was no magical sheen or glow to the book. Kiely opened the book again and this time, looked for something to indicate how to sign it. A little box on the bottom of the cover page drew her attention. She signed her name and that box, and when she closed it, she noticed that the book had a shinier cover than she remembered. Kiely went back into the book and tried to write something else, but the words only got absorbed into the page. 

While Kiely was fascinated by the book, she didn’t notice the man come into the room. She looked up in surprise when a tap on her shoulder brought her out of her focused state. “You done with that?” The man held his hand out for the book and Kiely handed it over. He flipped through the pages, seemingly nodding to himself. “Nice to meet you Kiely, I’m sure that you’ll be just fine here.” He smiled brightly and led her out of the room. Kiely noticed that the further they went in, the more people waved at them. The guy leading her spoke suddenly,”So, Kiely,” when he got her attention, he went on,” Fran said you came to the gates sporting full iron armor and a shield. You a Minecraft player?” The man waved at some people as they passed by.

“Oh, um. Yes, I am. I used to play with my brother sometimes after school. I wasn’t very good at it though.” Kiely actually used to play on the Xbox one, even though she knows most people have computers to play on. She got introduced to the game when she was very young. About age six if she remembers correctly. She remembers playing the game before even hunger existed yet, and the damage sound was that weird grunt before they changed it.

The man hummed in acknowledgement. He led Kiely down a corridor made of cobblestone

“That’s fine, it's not a requirement to be a Minecraft player to stay here,” He chuckled,” But it helps if they teach the others about the game. Most people don’t even know how to open their inventory.” He paused.”Well, it looks like we’re almost there. We’re putting you with the other kids your age. You're still a minor, so you won't be expected to help out with the big things yet, like gathering resources. Most of the kids just tend to farms or livestock, and help out around the base. Everyone here is from different parts of the world, so there might be some who don’t speak english.” 

Kiely nodded. “Alright.”

They came upon an open area, yet still covered by a ceiling. It was lit with the plentiful torches that she had seen all over the rest of the base, and the room was full of kids her age. Most were just chilling, and playing games with other kids. Some others were tending to what looked like a wheat and sugarcane farm in the corner, and the rest were either seen leaving or entering into another room. The space was large, so it wasn’t very crowded. A few of the teens looked up as they came in, but they soon went back to doing their thing. 

“Well,” The man spoke,”This is as far as I go. I have to get back to my job.” The man pointing over to a lady in the corner. If you need help, then go to April over there. She’s the chaperone for the fifteen to sixteen year olds here. She switches out with other people on different days, but I’m afraid I don’t know their names.” Kiely nodded and watched the man leave the way they came. 

She took a deep breath, and steeled herself for social interaction. She wasn’t exactly a shut in that never saw the sun for weeks on end, but she wasn’t a social butterfly either. She walked through the room, trying to make herself look as small as possible. In the end, that probably brought even more attention to her. 

Kiely looked up as one of the teens shouted. Recognition flashing through her as she looked up into a familiar face.

“Kiely?!” Jessie, shocked. Her expression dissolved into something more resembling pleasant surprise. “Thank god for a familiar face.” 

Kiely grinned as Jessie put down what she was working on and came over. She stopped in front of Kiely, a strange expression on her face. Kiely appraised her, she had grown since she last saw her, which was in summer camp last year. They had met during lunch and hit it off. Kiely had been texting the younger girl on and off since last summer. 

“Jessie! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you in person. I almost didn’t recognize you.” 

“That’s understandable,”Jessie smirked,”I have grown.” Jessie made an inappropriate gesture referencing her upper body. Kiely guffawed, as they were very crude teenage girls. 

“Well, I was more referring to your head taller-ness that wasn’t there when we last saw each other,” and it was true, Kiely was by no means the taller of the two, but she at least had a chance to catch up. Kiely was only 4’11. It ran in her mother’s side of the family, so she wasn’t surprised that most people were taller than her. Jessie had grown to the point that Kiely actually had to look up to see Jessie’s head. 

Jessie laughed and put out a flat hand to her chest, to about the height that Kiely came to.

“Is it just me or have you shrunk?” Jessie joked. 

Kiely grinned,”nope, you’ve just grown like a weed. You could probably rival an enderman.” Jessie furrowed her brow.

“What’s an enderman?”

“Nevermind.” 

For the rest of the day, Jessie showed her around. Kiely learned a great many things. Like where the sleeping quarters were, and how the floor was made of slabs to deter monsters, not that Jessie knew the purpose, only commenting on it as a weird design choice. It was boring, but Jessie made it worthwhile with her commentary.

“And that’s how you sleep. I know that an insomniac like you never sleeps, but you’ve got to learn how to sometimes.” Kiely laughed at the joke.

“I’m not an insomniac, I sleep.”

Jessie looked sceptical at that, “uh huh, and you don’t text me at one o’clock in the morning?” Kiely looked away, suddenly bashful.

Kiely and Jessie settle down for bed, picking a secluded spot in the corner. Kiely got out her bed, as the mats on the floor didn’t look very comfortable.

“Woah!” Jessie suddenly exclaimed,” you have a bed? How did you get that? And where the heck were you hiding a whole bed?” Jessie incredulously gestured to the large bed that Kiely had pulled out, seemingly out of nowhere. Kiely stared, confused for a moment before remembering that Jessie probably didn’t know what Minecraft was.

“You...do you know what Minecraft is?”

Jessie looked lost,”isn’t that a video game? The one with the blocks?” 

“Well, sort of,” Kiely floundered for a moment, trying to find the words. “We’re in Minecraft, I mean this place has similar mechanics to Minecraft?” That apparently caused Jessie to get more confused. 

“What do you mean ‘we’re in minecraft’? Do you know why we all appeared here?” Jessie asked. 

“No, I don’t know why but- here, let me just show you.” Kiely focused for a moment before her inventory appeared, the harsh glow of the screen contrasting with the darkness of the room. When Jessie’s face still held a questioning note, Kiely obviously gestured to the screen in front of her. “Don’t you see it?”

“See what?” If anything, Jessie just looked even more confused. Kiely straitened as a flash of understanding shot through her.

“You can’t see it.”

“Can’t see what?” Jessie demanded. 

Kiely tried to think of another way to explain, ultimately deciding to just lay out the facts. Kiely sighed.

“We’re in the world of Minecraft.”

“What does that mean?!” Jessie asks, frustrated. A few of the other kids in the room shushed Jessie, reminding them that they were not alone. Both of them quieted.

“It means that this world is like a video game. What I was trying to show you before?” Kiely referenced her still floating inventory,” that was my inventory, but apparently you can’t see that, which now that I think about it, makes sense.” Jessie went to interrupt, a silent question in her eyes, but Kiely shot her a look,” Don’t interrupt, I’ll explain. Since you don’t even know what Minecraft is, as shown by your complete lack of understanding when I referenced endermen earlier, I’ll tell you.” Kiely then went on to explain the premise of the game, answering Jessie’s questions as they came. 

“But the adults say we’re not allowed to have weapons here.” Jessie looked in awe at the iron axe that Kiely held. Kiely didn’t want to take her diamond stuff out, as it was better to have that as a backup.

“I know, but I snuck it in, so don’t tell.” Kiely whispered to the other girl, glad that the other kids had gone to sleep at this time. Jessie yawned, and shifted on the bed that they were both sharing. Kiely curled into the covers.

“Do you wanna learn how to open your inventory?” Kiely suddenly asked.

Jessie snapped to attention, her hazel eyes meeting Kiely’s grey ones. 

“Yes, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of the wonderful comments on the last chapter! I hope you like this chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes


End file.
